Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office welcomed the release of three Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, but warned that the images of their release, in which they are clearly malnourished, "will not go unchallenged."
"The shocking images we have witnessed today will not go unchallenged," said the office of the president, who remains on a trip to the United States.
The three Israelis released today, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, appeared very thin, serious-looking and aged after more than a year of captivity in Gaza, when they were led onto a stage by Hamas terrorists, before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
They were then handed over to the Israeli army, which took them to a base in southern Israel where they will undergo an initial medical examination and be reunited with their families, before being taken to hospital.
In a later message, the president's office said Netanyahu had ordered "measures to be taken in accordance with" the "plight of the three hostages and the repeated violations by Hamas."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also commented on the images.
“This is what a crime against humanity looks like,” the official said in a statement, urging everyone to “look directly” at the three freed prisoners.
Herzog praised the struggle of the families of Israeli hostages to bring them home and insisted that completing all phases of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas “is a humanitarian, moral and Jewish duty.”
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began, 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released in exchange for more than XNUMX Palestinian terrorist prisoners.
In exchange for the Israelis released on Saturday, 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails will be released, including 111 Gazans who were arrested in the Strip following the attacks of October 7, 2023.